Wow, you guys are FANTASTIC, thank you!
The inertia hammer bullet puller I have is too small to handle this big round. Danged shame, too. I feel comfortable pulling bullets from black powder cases, gently.
Steve, you have already advised me on loading this cartridge outside of the venue here. Recall I used "copper patched" bullets from Hawk, and they worked well at 60 yards, and I credited you, and you wrote back by email "color me surprised," which still makes me chuckle. Well today they, those same BP rounds, sucked donkey dog at 90 yards. If I have to drill the bullet, I will, although I am not choosing this as the first approach, because like others here, I am afraid the bullet will become deformed and the delicate information I am seeking will be lost.
Someone said above this round was common. Well, I haven't seen that. In fact, what I have seen is that it (ammo, guns, loading info) was uncommon. The gun is a Lancaster oval bore made in 1894 for the Raja of Poonch, who, according to the ledgers, ordered a second one in 1895. Having done as much historical research on the Rajas of Poonch (western Kashmir, quite a place for hunting and fishing) as anyone would care to know, I turned my attention to making the gun shoot right. Based on initial results, I thought I had it dialed in. Nope. After today it is back to the drawing board, and the two boxes of antique rounds from Drake should help me figure it out.
Just gotta get the bullets out in one piece and not deformed.
And I agree that this is cool and fascinating. The wads are of especial interest to me. I experiment with all kinds of wad materials in the BPE rifles in my care, using arch punches that I either make or order and then customize, and so far I haven't found anything better than the vegetable wad material by Walters Wads. So yeah, BrentD, you can bet I will post everything I get. One approach is to use a Dremel cutting wheel to slightly weaken the brass, so that it can be pulled back in strips or petals.
